A Baltimore judge on Monday dismissed a civil lawsuit against police officers who shot four people, including another officer killed by friendly fire, in 2011 during a melee outside the Select Lounge nightclub.
After hearing five weeks of testimony, Circuit Judge Videtta Brown ruled that the actions of the officers who fired the shots couldn't be judged in hindsight. The case was dismissed before getting into jurors' hands.
Brown said the plaintiffs failed to show that the officers were acting in an unreasonable way when they opened fire in a dark parking lot and killed plainclothes Officer William H. Torbit Jr. after he had shot and killed a patron who was part of a group that attacked him. Officers fired 34 shots, and three women were hit by stray bullets.
"The reasonableness of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on scene, rather than with 20/20 hindsight," Brown said.